Omeleto | FORGETTING CAROLINE | Omeleto @Omeleto | Uploaded July 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 day ago.
A man says goodbye to his stepdaughter.
FORGETTING CAROLINE is used with permission from Alexis Duran. Learn more at https://alexisduran.me.
Michael, his partner Silvia and his stepdaughter Caroline are headed to the airport. Michael is leaving for work, but he's also going for good. He and Silvia are breaking up, and it's a hard situation for everyone. It's especially difficult for young Caroline, who doesn't quite understand why her beloved stepfather has to go.
As the once-close family navigates this transition, Michael reflects on his memories of his time with Caroline while also sifting through the incidents, conversations and events that led to his decision to leave, one made more difficult by the love for his stepdaughter.
Directed and written by Alexis Duran, this heartfelt, resonant short drama threads the emotional journey of a man who fell in love with a single mother, grew to love his stepdaughter and must now say goodbye and grieve the family unit they had become. Toggling between past and present and told with a clear, straightforward visual simplicity, the storytelling is anchored in Michael's perspective. But with its close attention to the bond between him and his stepdaughter Caroline, it also develops an emotional richness that chronicles how Michael finds a family and how it comes apart.
Though the film moves back and forth in time, the narrative has a striking emotional clarity, built on a steady foundation of solid writing. Michael is the main character, but Caroline is the steady beating heart of the film, and we watch her attachment to Michael grow in the flashbacks, which are rendered with tremendous warmth and affection. She and Michael come to have a strong parental-type relationship, and she comes to adore him. It makes her growing distress at Michael's departure in the present all the more understandable.
Michael's departure is also traced with compassionate clarity, as he feels an inadequacy as a stepfather. As Michael, actor Adrian Quinonez has a warm, sturdy presence, making his bond with young performer Amani Solorio as Caroline all the more lived-in and believable. Quinonez deftly portrays how being a paternal presence in Caroline's life enriches him, but he also captures how deeply Michael wants to be a father to a child of his own. The film acknowledges the gap between his role and his desires with empathy. But when those desires don't align with those of Caroline's mother, it means that the found family unit comes to an end.
Honest and affecting, FORGETTING CAROLINE ends with a section picking up with Michael well after his breakup with Silvia. We see he's become a father with a close, loving relationship to his son. But it ends with a reunion and a recognition -- of the love that helped him become the father he is today, the grief when that relationship ended and the sorrow of the child who felt the loss most sharply.
A man says goodbye to his stepdaughter.
FORGETTING CAROLINE is used with permission from Alexis Duran. Learn more at https://alexisduran.me.
Michael, his partner Silvia and his stepdaughter Caroline are headed to the airport. Michael is leaving for work, but he's also going for good. He and Silvia are breaking up, and it's a hard situation for everyone. It's especially difficult for young Caroline, who doesn't quite understand why her beloved stepfather has to go.
As the once-close family navigates this transition, Michael reflects on his memories of his time with Caroline while also sifting through the incidents, conversations and events that led to his decision to leave, one made more difficult by the love for his stepdaughter.
Directed and written by Alexis Duran, this heartfelt, resonant short drama threads the emotional journey of a man who fell in love with a single mother, grew to love his stepdaughter and must now say goodbye and grieve the family unit they had become. Toggling between past and present and told with a clear, straightforward visual simplicity, the storytelling is anchored in Michael's perspective. But with its close attention to the bond between him and his stepdaughter Caroline, it also develops an emotional richness that chronicles how Michael finds a family and how it comes apart.
Though the film moves back and forth in time, the narrative has a striking emotional clarity, built on a steady foundation of solid writing. Michael is the main character, but Caroline is the steady beating heart of the film, and we watch her attachment to Michael grow in the flashbacks, which are rendered with tremendous warmth and affection. She and Michael come to have a strong parental-type relationship, and she comes to adore him. It makes her growing distress at Michael's departure in the present all the more understandable.
Michael's departure is also traced with compassionate clarity, as he feels an inadequacy as a stepfather. As Michael, actor Adrian Quinonez has a warm, sturdy presence, making his bond with young performer Amani Solorio as Caroline all the more lived-in and believable. Quinonez deftly portrays how being a paternal presence in Caroline's life enriches him, but he also captures how deeply Michael wants to be a father to a child of his own. The film acknowledges the gap between his role and his desires with empathy. But when those desires don't align with those of Caroline's mother, it means that the found family unit comes to an end.
Honest and affecting, FORGETTING CAROLINE ends with a section picking up with Michael well after his breakup with Silvia. We see he's become a father with a close, loving relationship to his son. But it ends with a reunion and a recognition -- of the love that helped him become the father he is today, the grief when that relationship ended and the sorrow of the child who felt the loss most sharply.
